Chairman of the Karnataka State Human Rights Commission (SHRC) S.R. Nayak has said that time has come to check the degradation of the environment, and the courts should exercise their judicial powers to ensure this without hesitation.

Speaking after inaugurating the World Environment Day programme organised jointly by the Gulbarga University and the Academy of Commonwealth Education and Humanities Studies, Mr. Nayak said the intervention of the judiciary in environmental matters did not mean that every development programme would be hindered, but it was necessary to maintain a proper balance between development and the environment.

Hand-in-hand

“While it is true that in a developing country there shall have to be development, that shall have to be in closest possible harmony with the environment,” he said.

He said the rate of degradation of the earth was alarming, and that and if this trend continued, degradation would be irreversible. “Earth has been described as a jewel in space, but that jewel faces various catastrophic problems such as lifeless rivers, land sterilized by humans, climate change, expanding deserts, deforestation, disorderly and rapid growth of cities, abject poverty [and so on],” Mr. Nayak rued.

He said the twenty-first century should be the beginning of a millennium of environmental justice, and this justice should enable man to sustain himself on earth, as it was a means to ensure a healthy environment for everyone.